But with Zeppelin, it's not like EVERYBODY has a live Zeppelin experience. Except for the excerpts from Live Aid and the Atlantic Records party, neither of which were great (and neither of which were optimal for singers in particular) and in Plant's case, the Freddie Mercury tribute, which a) wasn't as bad as people said, and b) achieved near mythological status because of Plant's refusal to allow the footage to be put on the DVD, has anyone seen Zeppelin live on a regular tour date? Not me.
When I did see him - solo and with Page - the reality did not jibe with the peanut gallery. Plant was always and often viewed as the "weak link" in Zeppelin (I believe Page even alluded to this once in an interview) and I believe that perception has stuck, even in the face of strong live material like TSRTS, HTWWW and the live DVD.
That second sentence made my head hurt.
I think the obvious reality is that, while the
volume of work Plant did with Zeppelin pales in comparison to what he's done post-Zeppelin, the interest level in Plant's post-Zeppelin work pales in comparison to what he did with Zeppelin. Consequently, any discussion of Plant as "one of the greatest rock vocalists" is almost completely dependent on what he did with Zeppelin, and his post-Zeppelin work is of marginal relevance (at best) to that discussion.
His abilities as a live performer over the last 35 years (of material that is, I assume, for the most part, quite different from what he did with Zeppelin) may well be outstanding. However, if Zeppelin never existed and
Pictures at Eleven had been the first thing anyone ever heard from Robert Plant (and assuming -- unrealistically -- that everything he's done since 1982 enjoyed the exact same level of commercial and critical success), absolutely no one would seriously consider whether Plant were "one of the greatest rock vocalists." One the other hand, if, instead of Bonham dying in 1980, Plant had died, I think there would still be discussion about Plant as "one of the greatest rock vocalists."